Philippines extend Michael Weiss' contract

After weeks of uncertainty, Philippines Football Federation have announced that Michael Weiss has finally agreed to a six-month extension to his contract with the Philippines national team.

Weiss' immediate task is to prepare the Azkals for the upcoming 2014 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying round in March.

Philippines will host the Group E qualifying matches and will be up against Brunei, Cambodia and Turkmenistan, with the matches being played at the Rizal Memorial stadium in Manila.

Twenty countries have been drawn into five groups for the qualifiers with the group winner and the two best second placed teams advancing to the tournament proper, to be hosted by Maldives in 2014.

Weiss has called-up 31 local based players for their training camp to prepare for the qualifiers.

The Philippines had recently announced that Spanish-based player Javier Patino had applied for a Philippine passport in the hopes of representing the country for the qualifiers, but it is still unclear if the player will be release by Cordoba CF for the qualifiers.

With the European league in the midst of its regular season, it is also unlikely that Weiss will be able to call upon the services of their star players such as Stephan Schrock (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim), defender Dennis Cagara (Karlsruher SC) and goalkeepers Neil Etheridge (Fulham) and Roland Muller (MSV Duisburg).

Philippines will kick-off their Challenge Cup qualifiers against Brunei on March 22 before taking on Cambodia two days later and end it off with a game against favourites Turkmenistan on March 26.